Government ministries and agencies on Tuesday hold a mock cyberattack drill with a team of white-hat hackers. Japan was to face a full-on cyberattack across government departments Tuesday in a drill aimed at bolstering national security as the country gears up to host the 2020 Olympics. | AP

Government, industry bodies take part in first broad cybersecurity drill

Japan faces a full-on cyber-attack across government departments Tuesday in a drill aimed at bolstering national security as the country gears up to host the 2020 Olympics.

Japan is following the lead of Britain, which invited ethical hackers to test its computer systems in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics. In the event, London parried multiple cyber-attacks.

Some 50 cyberdefense specialists were to gather at an emergency response center in Tokyo, with at least three times that many off-site, to defend against a simulated attack across 21 state ministries and agencies and 10 industry associations, said Ikuo Misumi, a hacking expert at the state-run National Information Security Center.

“It’s not that we haven’t put effort into cybersecurity, but we are certainly behind the U.S.,” Ichita Yamamoto, the Cabinet minister in charge of IT policy and who is leading the effort to boost cybersecurity, said in an interview.

The government forecasts Japan’s first Summer Olympics since 1964 will lift the economy. But officials worry it could also make the country a target for computer hackers. Attacks by foreign and domestic hackers against the government doubled last year, Misumi said.

Officials have acknowledged that even though Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has passed a strict official secrets law, the government cannot adequately protect itself from malicious Internet hackers. This is a worry for America as the two allies review their decades-old defense pact to respond to new threats, including state-backed hackers.

The government has also vowed to safeguard Japan’s cutting-edge technology from industrial espionage.

Japan’s cybersecurity is shared among the National Police Agency and four ministries, including those for defense and industry.

Tuesday’s drill is the first time that the government and business have worked together to counter the threat of hackers, Misumi said.

The test will help break down various “silos that currently exist in Japan,” said William Saito, a U.S.-born tech entrepreneur recruited to advise the government.

IT minister Yamamoto this month convened the first meeting of cybersecurity officials from the ministries and police agency, joined by outside experts, to hammer out a unified approach to Japan’s online security.

Yamamoto said his group will begin making recommendations by the summer. They might include encouraging more students to take up computer science or developing security software to guard against hackers rather than relying on imported products.